Many wireless communication systems include geographically distributed base stations that provide wireless service to user equipment (UE) devices such as cellular telephones, wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs), and two way pagers. The ability of a base station to receive a signal sent from a UE device depends on various factors such as distance between the UE device and the base station, noise, obstructions, and the number of other devices communicating with the base station as well as the type of signal modulation. Modulation schemes that offer higher data rates are not as easily demodulated at the base station since the base station must decipher between signal components that are closer together than lower modulation order signals. Although a lower modulation order may be used to transmit the reverse link signal, less data can be transmitted.
Therefore, there is a need for a hierarchical modulation reverse link interface node.